What can you write to describe this battle? It’s Stalingrad. It’s a scar on all ethics – all morality – all outlooks that men are basically good. Were men good when they massacred each other, starved each other, shot and stabbed and exploded one another at Stalingrad? Homo homini lupus – Man is a wolf to Man, according to Hobbes. This is the story of wolves shaped like men. This is Stalingrad.

The West Point Military Atlas of Modern War edited by Thomas E. Griess

The West Point Military History of The Second World War edited by Thomas E. Griess

The Second World War by John Keegan

Diary of a German Soldier by William Hoffman

A Soviet Veteran Recalls by Anton Kuzmich Dragan

Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the Operation to Rescue 6th Army by Hans Wijers

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer

Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer

Stalin: A Political Biography by Isaac Deutscher

Hitler by John Toland

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Atlas of the Second World by John Keegan

Battle Maps:

A military atlas depiction of the Soviet Winter OffensiveA closer view of the Soviet counterattackThe large red arrow represents operation Winter Storm. The blue-dashed lines represent the Soviet counter attack towards Rostov.Crushing the can: the Soviet attack on the Stalingrad pocket. The red arrows indicate Soviet thrusts. Notice the shape of the pocket.